Sick of Programming

I quit my job two weeks ago. I don’t want to program at work any more. I’m sick of being inside and stationary, and I’m sick of working in an environment where people don’t talk to each other.

Over the last few years I’ve worked for one company producing high-end music software. When I came in I was invincible, and after working for someone with a completely different approach to problem solving (right down to code style), I’ve become weak and ineffectual.

Well, those days are over. I’m going to get my style back and get back on the wagon of invincibility. Programming is art and should be a pure and unadulterated stream of conciousness from the developer to the machine. Python is art. Good design is art. Milestones are art. Good energy is art.

A lot of people tend to think that developing software means you have to work hard in a tunnel environment, like a battery sucked off the matrix. Well, I don’t subscribe to this philosophy. I believe that you have to really reach your potential in all walks of life you have to get up from your desk and replenish your sense of life between blocks of code. You have to joke about TPS reports and Bill Lumbergh’s ass and fling little paper shells at each other and keep a tally. The other guys around you need a recharge, too, and then you can sit back down and bang out the last few lines with clarity and conviction.

I’m psyched to get back to coding for the sake of art, where the idea and the implementation are solid gold. I quit my job, gave up my place, and I’m going to go bar tend in Jackson Hole and program for fun. I’ve got some PyQt dev kits to write to simplify audio software development, and have a huge GIL to deal with. We’ll see what happens.

There he saw how advanced Americans worked in hirise offices all day.“So you all volunteer for debtor prison and the unemployed are allowed to run free? You are advanced indeed. I however could never give up my freedom. I like the outdoors too much.”

I can empathise with this: I was in a situation where I was completely at odds with the company style too, and could get sweet fa done I wish I’d moved on sooner, it felt like a liberation at the new place.

This inspires me. Good luck from those of us tied down with mortgages and private school tuition. Don’t ever prostitute yourself to anyone. Development is art, not following directions in on a paint-by-numbers box.

Python is art. Good design is art. Milestones are art. Good energy is art.

If you haven’t already, you must read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s (sp?) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, which describes in detail the sensations you’re expressing in your post. And much of it applies to coding. I’m about halfway through the book at the moment, and when I’m done I’ll no doubt write in more detail about it at The Story’s Story.

I have started my own business, though in a different field ( web development, offering certain “services” ). In my office, I keep things loose. Don’t know how you’ve done it for so long.

I personally find it difficult to program working under those conditions. You have a neighbor that you can say little to, and you’re supposed to be working together to create this behemoth project. It just doesn’t work.

I encourage talking, “toy breaks”, and I don’t piss test 😉 Too much creativity to come from some of the more frowned upon personal daily activities.

I have yet to have a problem from anyone, whether for the sake of getting along with each other or major screw ups. Things get done, they get done quickly and they get done the right way ( most of the time ).

I wish you luck, but at the same time, your new situation doesn’t sound like a good solution to me. Bartending isn’t necessarily a fun job. It’s a lot more “work” than programming in many ways, and possibly even more menial than the work you had. Why couldn’t you code in your free time off work? You’ll still be spending as much time (or more?) at your job, away from what really interests you.

Anyway I’ll be subscribing to your blog now to track how you do, since I have similar sentiments and worries as I’m entering the workforce now as a programmer. Good luck.

To Anonymous: I’ll apply at the Mangey Moose, then Calico, then maybe the coach. After that anywhere works I suppose.

To Anonymous: I HAVE read Mihaly’s book, actually, and the concept of “Flow” was very eye-poening to me. I think it’s extremely relevant here!

To Anonymous: If they need “Toy Breaks” and continue to produce, then that’s were it’s at.

To Anonymous: Yeah, the bartending thing is an interesting idea, but I think it would be a great way to be around people and just try to do a good job some where. I want to have fun and ski my brains out again, completely freeing my mind for art, music, and programming on the side if I feel like it. I’ll probably go back to programming at some point, but not unless it’s on my terms, which I plan on becoming more connected to in the near future.

I can definitely empathize with your situation. For me, it was a more complete sort of burnout, as I felt like despite working with code since I was in my single-digit years, I really wasn’t enjoying it anymore nor was I the “rock star” coder I used to be. So I got out about a year ago, and now I co-own a company doing automotive customization. Ironically, one of the major things I find myself doing now is embedded programming in C, and I’ve discovered that I enjoy it a lot; it reminds me of the simplicity of DOS programming in my youth. 🙂 Best of luck to you!

Heya.. I go by hardwire and operate the channel #fossak on irc.freenode.net.

When you get a chance take your disgruntled inactive butt into the channel and we’ll see if there’s anything going on you can be a part of. I have a lot of initiatives and want to find local programmers to work along side.

I quit my dev job in january to ski bum in Jackson. It was actually a sweet gig that I quit, but it was a now or never type of thing. Hope you have a connect in Jackson to get you that bar tending gig, its a tough town for jobs right now. It was an adventure tho.

I am a legendary coder, able to acheive incredible speeds with super-small amounts of code.

I can code bug-free (if given time to write automated testing frameworks) and I do all that in a small amount of time.

But that’s all hobbyist stuff I do for free.

In my paid work… I’m stuck with stupid boss and co-worker who the boss listens to over me because he has a degree and does whatever the boss says even if my co-worker knows it is wrong.

Now the co-worker tries to tell me how to code, ignores all my frameworks that I built up, recodes duplicates of mine in a worse way, and then forces me to use HIS frameworks which are bloated, over complicated and a nightmare to understand.

End result: Slow badly tested code that took 3x too long to make, and I feel like crap.

I made my decision to leave. Just a matter of when I tell my boss that I’m ready to go.

You’re awesome, thanks for the inspiration, hopefully I’ll see you at the bar if I ever get back to Jackson. It’s unfortunate that in such an awesome place as Jackson Hole the only real options for employment are in the service industry. Check out the Snake River Brewing Company and the Virg, also great bars to work in or hang out at

I used to work in a high rise office, a great job for bragging rights. My desk had a window which was nice, however my view was of the flat concrete wall side of another building 10m away from ours.

I’d mozie on down to the board room to pickup some documents or hardware and stare out over the beautiful river, flooded in sunshine and blue skies. I’d envy the people riding jet skis, out walking their dog while I was stuck inside 31st floor for the next 8 hours.

I eventually left that job and now find myself working as a Fly in Fly out coder. I now get paid to travel the world and do what I love. Those warm days are now right at my feet as I sit outside with my laptop.

Fuck yes. More power to you! I agree with everything you say. If you have a craftsman’s soul, you cannot be confined. You have to reach total expressiveness in your art for its own sake, because it makes life worth living. If everything in life was mediocre “good enough”, would we enjoy life?

While perfectionism can be a disease, constantly cutting corners and knowingly writing bullshit code for the sake of “good enough” is very bad, especially for the soul, and that’s important.

Good timing, I just had this conversation yesterday. I’ve been working full time for 7 years and think I hit the same wall. I got a years savings to work with, I think I have to break out and see what happens… good luck to everyone

Seriously though, I hear ya. Believe it or not, you can have the best of both worlds. If you stick to only working with small, private and youthful (ok like under 45) companies with a small dev team you will find such an environment 9 times out of 10. Although I live in Philly where it is easy to find any type of tech job you want, but it is possible and I currently work in such an environment.

You go for it, life is too short to do things you don’t enjoy, something you appreciate even more as you approach middle-age (like me). I’ve just been offered a redundancy payment of 18 months salary. The best 40th birthday present you could ever receive!

For years, I told every developer who left the field or just that company, “change is good” and I meant it. When I made the move, I learned that change is great and the hardest step is the first. Best of luck!

Programming 🙂 I’m quite inspired by your attittude towards it, especially Python. I’m totally new to this and am quite amazed by it, to be honest. The thing that puts me off is the thought of long hours spent at computer desks, not moving, staring at a screen. Perhaps there are other manners.

Shame on him who says “Python is amateur art.” I’ve seen some awesome things come out of it. Tsk.

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